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Grip strength is the force your hand can squeeze, and it is one of the few strength numbers with large published norms behind it. This guide is for lifters who want to know where their grip stands and how to raise it: the average grip strength by age for men and women from a 49,964-person British dataset, how researchers measure it, a weekly plan for crush, support and pinch grip, and how to stop a deadlift slipping out of your hands.
The Three Grips You Actually Use
Crush grip closes the hand against resistance — shaking hands, closing a gripper. Support grip holds something heavy for time — deadlifts, carries, hangs; it is the one that limits most lifting, and the one most worth training. Pinch grip clamps the thumb against the fingers — holding plates flat, opening stubborn jars — the forgotten third that ages best when trained.
The practical insight: these barely transfer to each other. A crusher-of-grippers can still lose a deadlift; carries build support grip without touching crush strength. Train the grip your goals actually use — for most lifters, that is support first.
The Exercises, Simplest First
- Dead hangs from a pull-up bar: the foundational support-grip builder, progressing from both arms toward added weight. Accumulate time in sets — a minute total is a start, three is respectable.
- Heavy carries with dumbbells or kettlebells: walk until grip — not legs — asks you to stop. The most functional strength money can’t buy.
- Double-overhand deadlifts: simply delaying your switch to a mixed or hook grip turns every warm-up set into grip training for free.
- Plate pinches for the thumb side: pinch smooth plates together and hold for time.
- Bar hangs with towels draped over the bar, once ordinary hangs get easy — thick, soft, brutal.
Notice the equipment list: a bar, some plates, maybe a towel. Grippers and specialty tools are enjoyable extras, not prerequisites — the accessories our roundups cover earn their place after these basics are habits.
Where Chalk and Straps Fit
Chalk is grip training’s ally with no downside: it removes sweat-slip so your actual grip strength decides the set, and it builds rather than bypasses. Use it freely. Straps are more nuanced — our lifting straps and lifting belt roundups make the same argument: reserve them for the heavy sets where the target muscle, not grip, should be the limit, and keep warm-ups and lighter work strapless so grip keeps getting its training stimulus.
The failure mode worth naming: strapping everything, forever, then wondering why grip never grew. The fix is programming, not abstinence — strapless until grip genuinely limits the set, straps after, and some dedicated grip work on the side squares the circle completely.
Progressing Without Wrecking Your Elbows
Grip muscles recover fast; the tendons of the forearm and elbow do not, and they are exactly what aggressive grip programs inflame. The safe pattern mirrors our progressive overload guide: small increases, two or three dedicated sessions a week at most, and hard grip work kept away from days when pulling workouts already taxed the forearms.
Measure to stay honest — hang time, carry distance at a fixed weight, or the plates you can pinch are all logbook-worthy numbers. Expect visible progress in weeks and meaningful strength in months; nagging elbow or wrist pain that persists is a stop-and-get-assessed signal, not a training badge.
Why It Pays Off Beyond the Gym
Grip shows up in research as a marker associated with healthy aging — partly because hands that can carry, catch, and hold keep their owners active and independent longer. Whatever the direction of cause, the practical version is unarguable: groceries, luggage, ladders, jar lids, and every pulling exercise in your program all run through your hands.
It is also the rare training quality with no equipment excuse: a doorway pull-up bar and a pair of dumbbells — both covered on this site — cover the entire program above. Few strength projects need this little and pay this broadly.
What Is the Average Grip Strength by Age?
The most widely cited reference set is a 2014 study in PLoS ONE by Dodds and colleagues, which pooled 12 British studies and 49,964 participants measured with hand dynamometers, taking each person’s best squeeze. Men peaked at a median of 51 kg and women at 31 kg, both in their early thirties; the mean peak for both sexes fell at age 32. Grip then holds roughly level into the late forties and declines faster after about 60.
| Age | Men, median | Women, median |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | 48 kg (106 lb) | 30 kg (66 lb) |
| 35 | 51 kg (112 lb) | 31 kg (68 lb) |
| 45 | 49 kg (108 lb) | 30 kg (66 lb) |
| 55 | 47 kg (104 lb) | 28 kg (62 lb) |
| 65 | 43 kg (95 lb) | 25 kg (55 lb) |
| 75 | 35 kg (77 lb) | 21 kg (46 lb) |
| 85 | 29 kg (64 lb) | 17 kg (37 lb) |
Read the chart as the 50th percentile: half of people your age and sex squeezed more, half less. The same paper proposed weak-grip cut-offs of 27 kg for men and 16 kg for women (2.5 standard deviations below the young-adult peak). Two caveats: these are British adults, and the numbers come from clinical dynamometers, so a spring gripper rating or a bathroom-scale trick will not compare directly.
How Is Grip Strength Measured?
Research norms come from a handheld dynamometer, most often the Jamar. A 2011 paper in Age and Ageing by Roberts and colleagues reviewed how studies measure grip and set out a standard method (the “Southampton protocol”):
- Sit in a chair with a back and fixed arms, and use the same chair every time.
- Rest the forearms on the chair arms with the wrist just past the end, in a neutral position, thumb facing up.
- Wrap the thumb around one side of the handle and the four fingers around the other; adjust the handle width if it is uncomfortable.
- Squeeze as hard as you can. Start with the right hand, alternate hands, and record the highest reading.
The paper notes that studies differ in using one, two or three attempts and in taking the best or the average, which is why your number should be compared only with norms gathered the same way. Dodds and colleagues used each person’s maximum, with most of their studies taking three tries per hand. Without a dynamometer, track a number you can repeat: dead-hang time, farmer’s carry distance at a fixed weight, or the heaviest gripper you can close.
How to Increase Grip Strength: A Weekly Plan
Grip is trained like any other muscle group. The National Institute on Aging’s strength guidance applies directly: one set of 8 to 12 reps works, two or three sets may work better, take each set to where one more rep would be hard, add load, sets or reps gradually, and don’t train the same muscles on back-to-back days. For grip that means two or three sessions a week, separated by a day, and kept off the day after heavy pulling.
| Grip type | Exercise | Dose | Progress by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Support | Dead hang or farmer’s carry | 2–3 sets, stop one rep short of losing the grip | Longer hang, longer walk, then heavier load |
| Crush | Hand gripper | 1–2 easy warm-up sets, then 2–3 hard sets of low reps | Next gripper level |
| Pinch | Two smooth plates pinched together | 2–3 holds | Hold time, then heavier plates |
| Extension | Rubber-band finger opens | 1–2 sets of 15–25 at session end | Thicker band |
The gripper dose comes from IronMind’s own Captains of Crush FAQ, which recommends a warm-up gripper for 1 or 2 sets of 10 to 12 easy reps, then two or three maximum-effort sets, three times a week, and warns that endless easy reps do not build strength. If you want to choose a gripper, our grip strengthener guide lists the rated levels.
How to Improve Grip for Deadlifts
A deadlift that slips is a support-grip problem, so the fix is mostly holding heavy things for time, not squeezing grippers. In order of what to try:
- Chalk first. It removes sweat so the bar stays put and your real grip decides the set.
- Double-overhand every warm-up. Stay overhand until the bar starts to roll in your fingers, then switch grips. Every warm-up becomes grip work.
- Grip the bar low in the fingers. Set it across the base of the fingers, not the middle of the palm, so it can’t roll the skin into a fold as the bar loads.
- Top-position holds. After your last work set, hold a weight near your working load at lockout until the bar starts slipping. One or two sets is plenty.
- Hook or mixed grip for top sets. Hook grip (thumb trapped under the fingers) keeps both hands overhand; mixed grip (one palm up) is simpler but uneven.
- Straps for back-limited sets. When the goal is the back and hips, not the hands, straps are fine; keep them off warm-ups. Our lifting straps guide covers the styles.
Does Grip Strength Predict Health?
It is associated with it. A 2018 analysis in the BMJ of 502,293 UK Biobank adults aged 40 to 69 found that every 5 kg lower grip strength went with a 20% higher risk of death from any cause in women and 16% in men over the follow-up period, after adjusting for other factors. The authors say directly that the associations may not mean grip causes anything: weak grip may simply flag low overall strength, illness or inactivity. The practical reading is the one this guide already makes. Grip is a quick check on whole-body strength, and the training that raises it, heavy carries, hangs and pulls, is training worth doing anyway.
FAQ
How often should I train grip?
Two or three focused sessions a week is plenty, ideally not stacked on top of heavy pulling days. Tendons set the schedule: they adapt slower than muscle, and overuse shows up as elbow and wrist aches that force longer breaks than patience would have.
Do grip strengthener tools work?
Spring grippers train crush grip well and travel anywhere — a fine tool for that specific quality. They do little for the support grip that limits deadlifts and hangs, which is why bars, carries and hangs remain the program’s core.
Should I use a mixed grip or hook grip on deadlifts?
Both solve grip limits at max effort — mixed grip asymmetrically, hook grip painfully but symmetrically. The training answer is neither: pull double-overhand as long as possible in every session, and save the stronger grips for the sets that need them.
Can grip training help with wrist or elbow pain?
Sometimes appropriately-dosed forearm work is part of rehab — but that is a diagnosis-first situation. Self-prescribing hard grip training into existing pain more often feeds the problem. A physical therapist beats a protocol found online.
What is a good grip strength for a man?
In a 2014 PLoS ONE study pooling 49,964 British adults, the median man squeezed about 48 kg (106 lb) at 25, peaked at 51 kg (112 lb) in his thirties, and measured about 43 kg (95 lb) at 65. Being above the median for your age is a reasonable definition of good. The study's weak-grip cut-off for men was 27 kg.
What is a good grip strength for a woman?
In the same 2014 PLoS ONE dataset, the median woman squeezed about 30 kg (66 lb) at 25, peaked at 31 kg (68 lb) in her thirties, and measured about 25 kg (55 lb) at 65. Above the median for your age is a sound target. The study's suggested weak-grip cut-off for women was 16 kg.
Is grip strength measured in kilograms or pounds?
Research norms are usually reported in kilograms of force from a hand dynamometer, while many consumer dynamometers and hand grippers are labeled in pounds. Multiply kilograms by 2.2 to convert. Gripper ratings are not dynamometer readings, so a 100 lb gripper does not mean you have a 100 lb grip on a dynamometer.
How long does it take to improve grip strength?
Expect hang times and carry distances to climb within a few weeks, mostly from practice and better technique, and slower strength gains over months. Train grip two or three times a week with a rest day between, as the National Institute on Aging recommends for any muscle group, and back off if elbows or wrists ache.
Sources
- PLoS ONE (Dodds et al., 2014) — Grip Strength across the Life Course: Normative Data from Twelve British Studies
- Age and Ageing (Roberts et al., 2011) — A review of the measurement of grip strength in clinical and epidemiological studies: towards a standardised approach
- BMJ (Celis-Morales et al., 2018) — Associations of grip strength with cardiovascular, respiratory, and cancer outcomes and all cause mortality: UK Biobank cohort
- National Institute on Aging — Three Types of Exercise Can Improve Your Health and Physical Ability
- IronMind — Captains of Crush Grippers FAQ
About This Guide
Written by Mike Callahan, AmericaLifts’s founder and editor. Our educational guides follow the same standard as our reviews — see the editorial policy. Nothing on this page is medical or personalized training advice; if you have an injury or health condition, talk to a qualified professional first.
Note: Grip training loads tendons and connective tissue that adapt more slowly than muscle; progress conservatively, and treat persistent elbow or wrist pain as a professional’s question. Nothing here is medical advice.